Set in Stone
by sohesy
Summary: Konoha holds too many stories, and a few are even true. A boy raised by foxes, broken statues, and metamorphoses.


Disclaimer: I do not own.

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"You're a good listener, you know that?" No answer. But then, he hadn't expected any. Naruto patted him on the spiky stone head anyway.

This one was Naruto's favorite. Maybe it was the sculptor's favorite, too, and that was why it was the only one still complete. The others had been scattered across the floor in pieces, until Naruto swept them away to make room. He kept the piles separate, though, out of respect. Even broken they were still the best statues Naruto had ever seen, in his admittedly limited experience. There hadn't been a whole lot of art in the fox den, but there was plenty in the town council, and those were all stern and too perfect.

These statues all looked human. They were scarred and awkward and they looked like they might breathe, if you looked long enough. If they were intact.

They were all scared, too. Except for Pig. Spiky-head was just angry. Spiky-head was balling his hands and leaning forward and probably about to tear your head off. Naruto thought that Pygmalion might have been his favorite even if he had been broken, like all the others. "I guess you're all alone now. Like me." He scuffed his foot. "My family's all gone now too. Well—my parents have been dead for years, I don't remember them too well, but I had the foxes. You know. They were good to me."

He reached out and wrapped an arm around the statue, the kind of one-armed hug he'd seen the boys in the village do.

"I think you might be my best friend," Naruto confided.

At dinner, he set out two bowls, one for him, and one by Pig. After Naruto finished his share, he said, "Hey, if you're not going to eat that, I'll take it," and stole it.

At night, he laid out his pallet by Pig's feet. It was too much trouble to lug around a heavy statue all the time, so he'd moved everything into the kitchen. "Good night," he said out loud, curled up against Pig's legs.

No response. Maybe he should ask Sakura how to make an echo inside a house. "Good night," he said again, softer. He listened to the sound of his own breathing.

* * *

In the morning it was time for the weekly clean up. Pig got dusty if he wasn't tended to, so Naruto wiped him off until he glowed.

He tried to dust off the broken statues, too, but it was depressing. They were in so many little pieces, and Naruto felt sort of queasy when he looked at their faces, cracked and filled with so much terror.

He'd named Pygmalion from one of the stories Hinata taught him to read, but the broken statues were old people, so it was kind of weird giving them names.

(He called them "Mom" and "Dad," because they looked like a family, but only inside his head.)

"You know, I think your sculptor person must have been crazy," Naruto told them, talking so he didn't have to think too much about the dismembered hand he was polishing. "You guys must have taken _for-ev-er_ to carve. Why would he just go and break you after all that work?" He gently put down the palm near her wrist and picked up a finger. "Maybe he's like Kyuubi. Kyuubi was kind of crazy too."

Naruto frowned. "You know, there aren't any carving tools around here, or left over marble, or even a studio or anything. You'd think that the mad artist types would want something like that, right? If he could afford a house this big. It's suspicious." He laughed. "What am I saying? Of course the elders wouldn't lie to me. I should be thanking them for giving me such a nice house."

It was time to meet Hinata and Sakura for his lessons by the time he finished. He had to meet them in the marketplace. They didn't like to come near his house.

"I'll be back in time for dinner, Pig! Don't start without me." The door clicked shut behind him.

* * *

Naruto was pretending to study and Pig was glaring off into space, as usual, as if the peeling wallpaper were personally offensive to him. And maybe it was. It was sort of bothering Naruto, actually, now that he'd taken the time to look at it. It looked like—

"So I told you about Hinata teaching me to read, right?" he said, so he didn't have to think about it. "She showed me this book of kid's stories today, that she was using to teach little kids. There was this one about a princess, frozen in sleep. She woke up when the prince kissed her."

And she stayed with him and they lived happily ever after.

"And, I asked, and she said that that's the traditional way to fix these things! Kissing. It's worth a shot, right?" He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "And, well, I've never done this before, not a lot of girls around the forest, so sorry if I don't get it right!"

Awkwardly, he leaned over and bumped their mouths together. He closed his eyes, because that's what you're supposed to do, right?

It was pretty warm, for marble. Soft, too. And the sculptor must have been really good, because he could feel the roughness of the lips pressing against his—

He looked into dark eyes and screamed.

Pig wiped off his mouth with a grimace. "So this is hell," he said. "More perverts." He scowled at Naruto. "_You_ kissed _me_. I should be the one screaming."

Naruto gaped. "You, you—" His brain held only one thought: _it worked_!

"Me, me," Pig said mockingly.

His best friend was a _jerk_. Typical.

Naruto reached out and touched his throat, feeling the pulse jumping under his fingers. "You're alive," he said, delighted. "You're really alive."

Pig knocked his arm away and Naruto didn't even care. He touched his own throat, and for the first time, looked less angry, more uncertain.

"You're alive," Naruto said, aware that he sounded like a parrot but couldn't help it.

Pig sighed and crossed his arms. "So you've established, idiot," he said wearily. He was glaring, firmly focused on Naruto now, not a blank spot on the wall, and this was maybe the best thing that had ever happened to Naruto.

"Who're you calling an idiot?" Naruto demanded. "You thought you were in hell!"

"I'm sure this can't be much better," Pig muttered.

* * *

Naruto waited anxiously for Pi—Sasuke, now—to stop apologizing to the broken statues. Maybe they really were his parents or something; Sasuke seemed convinced that he was his own person and not just a statue brought to life by Naruto's will. He'd almost taken off Naruto's head for a simple question about his sculptor, and snarled that he was _born_, not made, before turning sullen and quiet again. His best friend was pretty moody.

But that was all right. Naruto didn't mind.

* * *

Naruto looked up after he finished eating. "Hey, if you're not gonna—" He stopped and stared. Sasuke wondered what he'd done that was so shocking. Sure, he hadn't used the proper table manners, but he doubted that Naruto could tell polite society from the backside of a mule.

"I, uh, guess I'll make another bowl. You want more?"

"Yes," Sasuke said, and glared at the back of Naruto's head as he turned away, humming.

He wasn't sure what to think.

If Naruto could do it—if Naruto had turned him from stone to life—then maybe Itachi could do it too, or had found someone who could, and _that_ meant—

Itachi might not have lied.

He welcomed the distraction as Naruto dropped more ramen in front of him with a crash, nearly spilling some over the side. What an idiot.

"So, uh, how'd you end up being a statue?"

Sasuke very nearly spat out a mouthful of noodles all over the table. Instead, he choked. Naruto pounded on his back. "Are you all right?" he asked, all concern, with no self-awareness or shame in his voice. He had to be the most tactless person Sasuke had ever met.

And really, why was Sasuke surprised? He'd woken up to find Naruto ki—to find Naruto screaming, and Naruto claimed to have been living with foxes for most of his life. He was at least very strange, if not actually insane. And now he was living in Sasuke's house.

(His parents had been very clean. He wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed, but—surely there would be some dust. So someone had been taking care of them. Like the interloper currently lodging in his house, maybe.)

Sasuke coughed. "Fine," he said. He caught sight of a lazy fly tracing slow curves in the air. Good enough for a quick example.

He waited, keeping his eyes focused on it until they felt hot and strained. He heard Naruto's intake of breath.

There was a gentle tinkle as the fly fell out of the air. He smiled slightly, and closed his eyes until they felt cool again. "So," he said, opening his eyes, "that's what happened. The Sharingan."

Naruto turned the fly over in his hands, holding it up to the light. "That's incredible," he breathed. "Your eyes turned red and everything! How does it work?"

"It's a family curse," Sasuke said, picking up his ramen again. "But we found a way to use it to our advantage."

"How do you turn back?" Naruto asked. He was still fascinated by the fly, Sasuke noted; he was even neglecting his precious ramen.

"You don't. I should be dead," Sasuke said bluntly. Aside from Itachi's stories, he'd never heard of anyone turning back to life after being transformed into marble—

The fly buzzed.

"Do things normally come to life when you touch them?" Sasuke managed weakly.

Naruto shook his head, and looked up, eyes bright. "Let's try it," he said, and yawned, loudly, not covering his mouth and stretching without shame.

"We'll try it more tomorrow," Sasuke decided. "It's late." More to the point, it was dark, and it'd be easier to locate test subjects in the day.

So if his revival hadn't merely been a fluke, and Naruto could do it consistently, it was even more likely that Itachi was—

Well, if Naruto could do it on demand, then Sasuke would be able to practice without killing his backyard's ecosystem, at least.

When he stood up, Naruto called out to him, too loud and too cheerful, "Good night!" He paused at the door.

" . . . Night," he said, and it was with Naruto's soft answering smile in mind that he fell asleep.

* * *

It was still dark when he woke up, but he jolted immediately to awareness because there was _something clinging to his foot_—

He instinctively kicked out.

Naruto yelped.

"Oh, it's you," he said, grateful that the irritation in his voice masked the relief. Just the idiot—sleeping at his feet? "What are you _doing_?" He sat up. Naruto hugged his knees, curling up into a miserable, embarrassed ball.

"The den was pretty small," Naruto said, shrugging awkwardly. He didn't look up, and Sasuke had to lean in to hear the words mumbled into his knees. "The foxes slept real close. They always kept me warm and I could hear them breathing and stuff . . . . I just didn't want to be alone."

Sasuke remembered watching his father watch Itachi, the pride in his father's eyes, and the absolute blankness when he looked at Sasuke. Itachi's whispered explanation. The impossibility of sleep that night, the air so tight it pressed him down, worse than Sharingan.

It's no better being alone surrounded by people, Sasuke didn't say.

"—You were sleeping in the kitchen, before?"

"Um, yeah." Was the blush only his imagination? It was hard to tell in the dark. "That's where you were. You were too heavy to move around all the time." Definitely not his imagination.

That's right. From where the pallet had been sitting . . . roughly by his feet, when he'd first woken up. When he'd woken up to see—Naruto. His first sight in years, possibly. And also his first—

"I can sleep on the floor, if you want," Naruto continued hastily.

How could one repay a stranger for carrying on his familial duties?

By conversation and company, maybe.

"Whatever," he said, lying back and rolling over. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, and after a few minutes, his feet were warm again.

* * *

When Naruto finally woke up, he found Sasuke out in the backyard with a shovel. From the sheen of sweat, he'd been out here for a while.

"I'm setting them to rest," Sasuke said, without looking up, and kept digging.

Naruto looked at the hole, thought of the pile of statues, and then of his foxes, and didn't say anything.

Instead, he brought out two glasses of water and another shovel.

* * *

Sasuke refused to stop until the graves were finished, so Naruto's stomach was grumbling audibly as Sasuke washed his hands in the kitchen sink.

"I'm hungry!" Naruto announced to the world out loud. The novelty of talking and getting an answer hadn't quite worn off, even if Sasuke wasn't nearly so enthusiastic.

"I can tell," Sasuke said dryly, and eyed the inside of his pantry with distaste. "There's nothing but ramen."

"What's wrong with that?" _Absolutely nothing_, said Naruto's stomach.

Sasuke put a hand to his face, and sighed heavily. "How long have you been living here?" he asked.

Naruto scrunched up his face in thought. The foxes hadn't had much use for marking time, beyond 'it's cold' and 'it'll get colder.' "Over a month now, I guess? I dunno."

"And you've been eating nothing but ramen for all this time." Sasuke looked skyward, in a gesture Naruto recognized from Sakura: _ancestors, give me patience for idiots._

"The foxes used to just bring me chickens and rabbits all the time," Naruto said, and this was the weird thing about talking to people, needing to explain what the foxes always just knew. But Sasuke was looking at him now, not the ceiling, so he continued. "And then I'd have to kill them and skin them and everything myself, and it always tasted the same. Burnt. At least ramen's easy to make." He shrugged.

" . . . My mom taught me how to cook," Sasuke said eventually. "It's not that hard. Even you could probably manage it. Get something other than ramen next time you go shopping and I'll show you."

And for someone like Sasuke, that was something like an apology. "Yeah," Naruto said. "That'd be good."

* * *

"Took you long enough," Sasuke said, when Naruto finally returned with a few brown paper bags.

They traded prizes: a handful of tiny marble insects for the groceries. Sasuke began unpacking as Naruto inspected his toys. "Just bugs?"

"If you can't turn them back there are always more bugs," Sasuke said. "The same isn't true for everything else."

"Makes sense, I guess." Naruto picked up a minuscule beetle and dropped it as it started twitching. "Oh," he said stupidly. "I guess it works?"

Sasuke snorted but mostly looked sour. "What's your problem?" Naruto asked, rubbing the grasshopper.

"Take them outside, and keep them away from the food," Sasuke ordered. Naruto watched him and thought that Sasuke might be setting things down with more force than strictly necessary.

"You scared of bugs or something?" But Sasuke didn't seem scared, just annoyed. He thought of that first demonstration, the fly, and how long it had taken. Ah. Sasuke was mad because Naruto was better at this than Sasuke was with his Sharingan. Hah.

That reminded him of something. "So, your spooky red eye thing—if it's a family thing, then who did it to you?"

"My brother," Sasuke said, short and clipped, and that silenced them both, the quiet interrupted only by the clangs of Sasuke moving things around.

He quietly let the rest of the insects go outside, each taking longer than the beetle. Maybe it'd just been a fluke.

When he came back inside, Sasuke didn't look at him.

He knew he'd messed up, but he wasn't sure how to undo it. What would Sakura do? Something wordy and girly, probably, but he wasn't Sakura. He considered his options.

"Sorry," he mumbled, and hugged Sasuke. For a moment, Sasuke's palms rested on his arms, his whole body tense and rigid, like he couldn't decide whether to give in or to end it—

Sasuke shoved him away, hard. "Get off me, idiot," he said, looking aside.

Naruto sighed. "Sorry," he said again. At least Sasuke was angry, not broody. That was almost an improvement.

* * *

"I made you, little brother. I carved you from the marble and gave you life. If I want to play with the toys I've made—"

His hands curled involuntarily into fists.

"I'm fucking human," Sasuke snarled. "I'm not yours and I'll _kill_ you—"

Itachi laughed. It wasn't pleasant. "_I made you_. I know everything you'll do before you do. All your skills, your memory, your mind—I gave those to you. How much of your childhood do you remember? Why didn't you have any friends? Why doesn't Father care for you? Why—"

He woke up, shivering in the darkness. At his feet, Naruto was still. Good.

He buried his face in his hands, and waited until he could stop shaking.

* * *

"Go away," Sasuke said, staring into the creek.

He ruffled Sasuke's hair, enjoying the feel of it. "Why?"

Sasuke swatted him away irritably without looking at him. "Because I'm _practicing_, idiot, and you're distracting. Go back to the house."

"Don't want to. It's boring. And you've been practicing for _hours_ already." Sasuke had left the house before Naruto even woke up. "Have you even had lunch? Breakfast?"

"Do whatever you did before I woke up," Sasuke said. "I'm not hungry. Itachi's had _years_ of practice."

It seemed clear to Naruto that those years of practice weren't going to go away, no matter what Sasuke did, but he knew that pointing it out would only make Sasuke more irritable. "I used to take care of you," Naruto said instead. "And your parents."

Sasuke didn't say anything to that, but Naruto eyed the rigid line of his muscles and thought that he might be a little more amenable now.

"If I bring my book out here, can I sit with you? It's too quiet inside."

Sasuke shrugged, the hard lines of his back smoothing out. "Do whatever you want," he said, his voice all irritated resignation, but Naruto thought that was as close to an invitation as he'd get. He hopped up cheerfully and left before Sasuke could change his mind.

* * *

Naruto came back with his book, and also a pair of sandwiches. Sasuke took one without thanking him. He hadn't asked Naruto to make him lunch.

He hadn't asked Naruto to polish his parents, either. That thought kept running through his head and developing into new things when he wasn't looking, and he didn't like what it was becoming: _you owe him_.

"It's weird, having a pantry," Naruto said thoughtfully, around a mouthful of bread and ham. "We always had to eat whatever we had. Kyuubi wasn't good at storing." He swallowed audibly. "When I was small they'd just bring me berries or hunt for me when I got hungry, but when I got older they started stealing stuff for me. Chickens. We had to steal a lot of them. It was only fair, though. The village kept stealing or scaring off all our prey."

A fish sank to the bottom of the creek, joining a growing collection. He took the first bite of his own sandwich, to reward himself. "You should have raised your own chickens," Sasuke said. It was a pretty good sandwich.

"I thought about it," Naruto admitted, "but I don't think I could eat something I'd taken care of." He shrugged. "And I could never keep the hens alive long enough. Kyuubi kept eating them before they could lay eggs." Kyuubi? That was the only name that Naruto ever mentioned. Strange.

Sasuke snorted. "You'd probably name it and make a pet out of it, you mean." Naruto had named a _statue_ and taken care of it. He scowled. He didn't need to be taken care of.

He closed his eyes. When it was safe, he turned to Naruto. "What'd you call my parents?" he asked abruptly.

"Nothing," Naruto said, too fast, not looking at him.

"It's just a name," Sasuke said. Too much reaction for a passing question. "You didn't call them anything insulting, did you?"

"No. I—nothing."

He let it drop. It wasn't worth pushing, not when they both had so many sore spots. It made their conversations a minefield, sometimes. He turned back to the creek, and focused all his attention on a single point.

When it tumbled into the creek a few minutes later, he fished it out and tossed it at Naruto's head.

"Ow! What was that for, you—oh." Naruto cradled the tiny frog carefully in his hands. It was small enough to nestle comfortably in his palm.

"Now you have a friend," Sasuke said. He couldn't help the smirk.

"That's still one more than you have," Naruto shot back, but he was grinning. And petting the little frog, like he might have done to Sasuke.

Better not to think about that. "Hn."

* * *

The stone frog turned back a few days later, but Naruto had plenty of other friends by then. When he woke up and went out to the garden, he'd find them waiting, a line of offerings. Naruto moved them around into groups, so they wouldn't be alone. It took them longer to turn back to life, now, which Sasuke speculated was because they were larger or Naruto spent less time with each individually, but Naruto didn't mind. It meant that his acquaintances lasted longer.

He always let them go when they turned back. There were more where they came from.

After checking on his growing collection, he'd attempt to make breakfast, or force Sasuke to make it for him. Naruto had soon learned that Sasuke didn't eat until he'd met whatever goal he set for himself, but he wouldn't waste food, either. Sasuke was already too skinny and angular, sharp edges that had fascinated Naruto as a statue. His fingers itched to run over them again, see how they felt in the flesh.

Kyuubi wouldn't have let him go around like that, twiggy and furless. It was lucky that Sasuke had Naruto to take care of him now; not that Sasuke was appreciative. But then, he knew that Sasuke was a jerk. A super-jerk. No, what was that word Sakura had used once? A _bastard_.

* * *

"What's wrong with you? You've been fidgeting all day!" Sakura said, exasperated. "What are you playing with? Let me see that."

She seized the frog from his limp grasp and froze. "Where did you get this?" she asked.

Naruto swallowed. Sasuke hadn't told him to keep his return a secret, but as far as Naruto knew he hadn't gone outside of their property, either. "I found it," he said lamely. "Around the house." And since the foxes had taught him to be a better liar than this, "Cool, isn't it? I've never seen anything like it."

She rubbed it thoughtfully. "I saw something like this once when I was young," she said conversationally. "A boy in my class always had these perfect marble sculptures. They were perfect, so realistic you'd think they were real. I used to think that he must be so rich, because they don't have quarries for this kind of marble in this part of the world. It's imported, from beyond Fire country."

Sakura placed the frog in his palm, and closed his fingers around it. "Take care of it," she said. "It's worth something." And he maybe wasn't good at reading people, hadn't had enough practice, but he knew she wasn't talking about the frog.

"I will," Naruto said. He would have anyway.

* * *

"I think it's my turn," Sasuke said, flipping disinterestedly through the paper, occasionally pausing to chew his plain toast.

"Your turn for what?" Naruto asked, already on his fifth piece of buttered toast. He stopped chewing and looked quizzical and vaguely worried, and Sasuke realized he was glaring. He hadn't meant to. Hadn't even intended to look at Naruto, actually. This was what he hated most about having Naruto around, the way he kept stealing Sasuke's attention without his consent.

This line of thought wasn't helping to reduce the glare.

"My turn to ask invasive personal questions," Sasuke clarified, wrenched his gaze back to the paper. "It's only fair." Couldn't help but look up again, to gauge Naruto's expression.

"I—guess so," Naruto said uneasily. Sasuke could guess at some of the questions which were making Naruto twitchy, but he doubted that Naruto would give him an honest answer, either. Better to wait until he had evidence, or at least leverage.

"What was it like, living with the foxes?" he said instead, just to throw Naruto off guard.

"The foxes were nice," Naruto said slowly. "Well, no, nice isn't the right word, foxes are pretty amoral, really, but—they found me and they took care of me when my parents died. The villagers didn't."

Sasuke nodded. "Fair enough."

"My turn!" Naruto said, leaning back and obviously racking his brain for a good question. "So, any relation to the Gorgons?"

He snorted. "That's just a story." He turned the page without really seeing it; in his mind he was already planning. Naruto sounded natural when he told his story, no obviously uncomfortable moments, but his instincts were screaming that something was off. Naruto was hiding something, Sasuke was sure of it. He'd find out what.

Why did he even care? As soon as his Sharingan was ready he'd be leaving Konoha and Naruto behind. He would find Itachi. Everything else was secondary.

"Aww. No snakes for hair either?" Naruto said, in airy tones of disappointment.

"_No_," Sasuke grated, and knocked over Naruto's milk into his lap. He finished the last of his own orange juice before Naruto could retaliate.

* * *

"You disappoint me," Itachi said, silky smooth words but eyes that burned. "I created you to be more than this."

He wanted to scream but he couldn't move, and he needed to be stronger but it was too late, too late, he'd never be anything again—

He sat up and tasted blood in his mouth.

* * *

He felt like they were missing something from the stories. By now, they should be married and ruling a kingdom or something. He'd woken up the princess from his slumber, hadn't he?

It was a good thing Sasuke wasn't looking at him. The memory of waking Sasuke up made his face heat up. It hadn't been a bad kiss, and that was when Sasuke was only waking up. What might it be like now, that Sasuke would be awake and (hopefully) participating?

Not that he'd ever find out. All he did was watch Sasuke practice over his book, and then play with the marble until he'd undone all Sasuke's progress.

At this rate, they were _never_ going to live happily ever after, he thought mournfully. Well, if Sasuke wouldn't initiate things then Naruto would. If he was lucky, Sasuke might not even turn him into stone for it.

It was a pretty sunny day. Hot. Maybe Sasuke would want a drink. He arranged the contents of his pockets in a wide circle around Sasuke, to guard him until Naruto returned.

* * *

"So, how many girls have you kissed?" Naruto asked, idly spinning a marble butterfly. It was a pity that marbling leached the color, Sasuke thought, it'd been gem-blue, bright and clear, like—like the open sky on a cloudless day. Right.

"Not a lot," Sasuke said curtly. Not any, actually, but like he'd tell Naruto that. For some reason, Naruto kept using every one of his questions about kissing or sex or dating. Probably Naruto was just trying to embarrass him; he tried not to let on how well it was working. "I don't go around kissing random people. _I'm_ not a pervert."

Naruto's chair, which had been tilting back on two legs as Naruto tried to balance the butterfly on his nose, crashed forward. Sasuke's hand swept forward and plucked the butterfly out of the air. "I'm not a pervert!" Naruto defended. Waved his arms wildly, like that would prove something. "I was just waking you up! That's what you're supposed to do in stories!"

"You can't just go around kissing people," Sasuke hissed. Why did Naruto have to keep bringing this up? To his horror, Sasuke felt his cheeks warming. Maybe Naruto would be so socially inept that he wouldn't notice.

The universe was never so kind to him. "You're just embarrassed because you're a lousy kisser," Naruto said, cheeky. "Not like me. I brought you back to life. Wow, I must be good."

He knew it was bait but couldn't leave it alone, either. That pretty much summed up his problems with Naruto—he was so damn noisy. Sasuke couldn't stop paying attention to him, couldn't stop reacting.

"I was a statue at the time," Sasuke snapped. "I was _immobile_, you idiot. If you kissed me now it'd be different." The butterfly was digging into his palm now. He considered throwing it at Naruto's head.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. You're full of talk." And that tone—well, that was a challenge, wasn't it?

He grabbed a fistful of Naruto's collar and jerked them together before he could think too much about it. Slid the other hand into his hair, still clutching the butterfly, marble meeting gold.

The glimpse of wide blue eyes was familiar.

(And maybe a _little_ like—open skies on cloudless days. Sunlight so bright it hurt to see.)

He pulled away and began picking up dishes, to give his hands something to do. Naruto was very still. He looked back, just to make sure Naruto was still tan and not pale marble.

The quiet was very promising, he thought, satisfied. He left the butterfly tucked into Naruto's messy hair, a parting gift.

* * *

He heard footsteps behind him and tried not to let the smile show. So. He'd been wondering how long he could keep Naruto still and quiet. About five minutes, it seemed.

"So, can I kiss you?" Naruto blurted out.

"I'm busy right now," he said, keeping his voice bored and indifferent. "Maybe later. I'll pencil you in for an appointment after dinner?"

"You _bastard_," Naruto growled, and then Sasuke slammed into the ground, knocked over by a flying tackle. There would definitely be grass stains. Sasuke closed his eyes, since he'd already activated the Sharingan.

"You bastard," Naruto said again, but this time less angry, more considering. "Why do you have to make everything so difficult?"

How was he making things difficult? He hadn't even kicked Naruto off yet, though if Naruto didn't do anything in the next minute he would.

Hopefully Naruto could take a hint. The movement of his hands sliding up Sasuke's side, deliberate and warm and shiver-inducing, suggested he could.

Naruto shifted his weight, and rested his head on Sasuke's chest. "Your heart's pounding," Naruto said, sounding amused. "Like a rabbit's."

Did Naruto just compare him to a _rabbit_?

"Are you planning on doing something, or just lying on me?" Sasuke asked, proud of how bored and even it came out.

Naruto sighed, loud and long-suffering, as if called to some taxing labor. "I guess I could," he said, and kissed him.

Sasuke kissed him back and tried to resist the temptation to open his eyes. There was too much adrenaline in his blood to turn off the Sharingan.

Naruto's mouth slid off his to start pressing little kisses against his eyelids, the tip of his nose, just under his ear. It was so random that it made him scowl. He didn't like this, being unable to see Naruto or predict his movements.

Something warm and wet brushed against his ear, so startling his eyes flickered open involuntarily. Thankfully, Naruto wasn't looking back at him.

"Stop surprising me," he said roughly, covering his eyes with a hand. "It makes me want to look at you."

"I'll get you a blindfold," Naruto said breathlessly.

He almost shoved Naruto off for that suggestion, but then he thought about it. If he didn't have to cover his own eyes, then he'd be able to use both hands. "Maybe next time," he allowed, and touched Naruto's face with his other hand, so he'd have some idea of his expression. He felt the upward curve of Naruto's mouth.

"Next time, huh?" Naruto said, low and a little husky. "Are we already planning for that?"

"Sure," Sasuke said. "You have a follow up appointment in two weeks."

"Bastard," Naruto said yet again, but he was still smiling.

* * *

There still wasn't as much kissing as Naruto thought there might be. He learned quickly that Sasuke didn't like to be touched before he'd _earned_ it. So Sasuke woke up at unholy hours of the morning to practice, and Naruto would wander down around noon, once Sasuke had finished his daily penance or whatever, and then Sasuke would let Naruto touch him.

He didn't really understand Sasuke's problem. He liked it, and it seemed Sasuke liked it—so why was it such a big deal? Sasuke always acted like it was a bother to him, like he didn't even like Naruto. But then, Sasuke was pretty stupid about asking for what he wanted. _Sakura_ had to tell him to get tomatoes, since Sasuke never put them on the grocery list.

He added a psychology book, on Sakura's recommendation, to his collection of study materials.

He had a lot of them. He would be so useful that Sasuke would never leave him alone.

* * *

Sasuke was perched on his usual rock, and Naruto sprawled out on the grass with a book when Sakura found them.

"You know, I think you might be agoraphobic too," Naruto mused, paging through his newest friend. "Huh. Or do you avoid social situations out of fear of embarrassment? Is that why you won't leave this yard?"

"_No_," Sasuke said, and made a mental note to burn Naruto's dinner. Or throw out all the ramen.

Naruto had recently picked up a psychology text, and it was driving Sasuke over the edge. Naruto kept interpreting every word out of his mouth as proof of some disorder or another, until he was forced to kiss Naruto just to shut him up. Sadly, this was probably playing into Naruto's hands. He should just hide the damn book.

A twig snapped.

Sasuke waited until his eyes cooled, and turned. "Sakura," he acknowledged. "I was wondering when you'd show up." He looked over to Naruto, still absorbed in his book, and nudged him with a foot. "Hey, idiot. Company."

"Sasuke," Sakura said softly. "You haven't changed at all."

Sasuke shrugged. He hadn't changed, but the rest of the world had; she must be at least a few years older now. At least he was still taller.

"Hey Sakura," Naruto said. "This is a great book! I love it." He tilted his head at Sasuke. "You wouldn't _believe_ how messed up this one is."

Sakura grinned. "Actually, I might. He's always been a little odd." She noticed his expression and _ruffled his hair_.

He knocked her arm away and scowled. Clearly her crush on him was over, and while he'd never wanted that kind of attention, he demanded respect. He wasn't used to this older woman, head-patting nonsense. "Was there something you wanted?" he asked pointedly.

"I was just passing through and thought I'd stop by. You haven't visited any of your friends, Sasuke. Even if you didn't consider us your friends, you were ours."

He knew that. He didn't need the guilt-trip. "It's been years. People have moved on by now. I doubt that any of the people I knew are the same today."

"You're right about that," she said quietly, "but I would have liked to know you're all right." She studied him. "You look well."

"I _told_ you I'm taking good care of him," Naruto put in.

Sasuke glared, at him and then at Sakura. "I don't need to be taken care of," he snapped. "Anything else?"

"No," she said. "I'll get out of your personal space, you can stop glaring at me. It was nice seeing you again, Sasuke." Then to Naruto: "Keep him from doing anything stupid."

"I will!" Naruto chirped. Sasuke kicked him.

* * *

Itachi's blood was drying on his hands but Itachi was still talking.

He couldn't hear a word but knew it was _proof_, something solid beyond Sasuke's power to dismiss.

* * *

Sasuke paused, his hands on Naruto's face, thumbs rubbing gently over the scars. "Where'd you get these?"

Naruto sighed and maybe moved into the touch a little. "Kyuubi gave them to me," he said. "So I'd match the foxes."

"Kyuubi, huh?" Naruto shrugged and leaned away, and Sasuke let him. "How old were you, when the foxes found you?"

"It was my birthday," Naruto said finally. "I was four."

Sasuke snorted. "Some birthday present," he said, and Naruto knew by now that Sasuke's nonchalance was born out of too much caring, not too little. "You were young, then."

He shrugged. "Old enough to talk, at least," he said, and kissed the edge of Sasuke's cheekbone, right under the black scarf tied around his face.

"Do you blame your parents?" Sasuke said.

Naruto stiffened, but Sasuke's voice was perfectly normal, no hint of knowing anything but what Naruto had told him. "For what? Dying on me? It's not their fault."

"Hn," Sasuke said, accepting, and Naruto breathed out. Allowed Sasuke's palm slide over his ribs, so that his shirt bunched up with it and let Sasuke's fingers trail over the revealed skin. Sasuke traced the marks on his stomach, fingers barely skimming the surface, and didn't ask, for which Naruto was grateful. He slid his own hand just under the hem Sasuke's shirt, rubbed the smooth skin there. He knew his fingers were rough, callused, but that little inhalation suggested Sasuke didn't mind.

This was nice. Different, but nice. It was usually Naruto doing all the talking, all the touching, and it was good to see Sasuke reaching out to him, proof that this wasn't one-sided.

"How'd you talk to the foxes?" Sasuke asked a moment later, after Naruto lost the whole shirt.

Naruto shrugged. Cool air, on bare skin, but Sasuke was warm, and that made up for it. "I just—talked, and they understood me." And often they understood him when he didn't talk, even. He frowned as he thought of something. "You know, it's not nice to kiss me just so you can interrogate me."

Sasuke looked surprised and a little guilty. Caught. It was hard to tell with Sasuke's eyes covered, but Naruto was learning the slanting angles of his mouth. "I'm not nice," he said, pressed a kiss to the edge of Naruto's mouth; his aim was still a little off when blindfolded. "But I'll make it up to you."

He bent down, far enough that Naruto briefly wondered if Sasuke couldn't tell where his head was, until his mouth started following the path traced earlier by his fingers.

"Oh," Naruto said weakly, voice entirely too high. "That's okay then."

* * *

"So you're alive," Itachi said. "Well, I'll be more thorough this time. I won't leave anyone alive to revive you."

Naruto, always too bright, fidgeting with too much energy, horribly still and pale—

"You should have left him out of it," Itachi said, mock-sorrowful. "This is a family affair."

* * *

"Foxes are solitary animals, usually," Sasuke pointed out over dinner. "Not pack animals." From the way Naruto talked sometimes, he made it sound like he and the foxes had been one big happy family or something.

He wasn't _interrogating,_ as Naruto had taken exception to that, (and the distraction technique had worked nearly as well on Sasuke himself, he thought wryly). He was simply curious. Someone, most likely Sakura, had left a book on foxes at their doorstep, and he'd been sneaking peeks at it whenever Naruto wasn't looking.

"There was only one fox," Naruto said over his ramen. He had turned down Sasuke's tomato soup in favor of noodles and salt. Heathen. "It had nine bodies."

Sasuke stared. "What?"

"Well, if you can go around turning things into marble, it makes just as much sense!" Naruto defended. He deflated. "I didn't really get it either, but—they were all a little different, but still Kyuubi. Somehow. Even though there were never more than three of them that got along at a time. He said that he might be able to teach me to do it, too—only like one or two more of me, but he thought that I could do it."

Throughout this whole speech Naruto kept eating and shoveling down ramen. Sasuke sighed. One day he'd make sure Naruto learned to swallow before talking.

(And what a dangerous thought. Why was he thinking "one day," anyway? Like he had a future. Like Naruto was in it.)

"One of you is more than enough," Sasuke muttered. Well, if Naruto turned down his tomato soup, that only meant more for him. He helped himself to seconds.

Naruto reached over, wiped his cheek off. Licked his thumb. "Not bad," he said thoughtfully.

Sasuke watched him lick his fingers clean, and deliberately took another swallow.

Naruto's tongue swept across his mouth. "Tastes better on you," he said with a grin, and lowered his voice. "Want to get your scarf?"

Sasuke cleared his throat. "Let me finish this soup," he said, "and then I want _you_ to put on a scarf."

Naruto wouldn't turn into stone as long as he didn't meet Sasuke's eyes. The blindfold would work just as well on Naruto.

"I can work with that," Naruto said.

* * *

"And now you've killed the only person who ever cared about you. What meaning does your life have now?"

For a second he thought _no, that's wrong, there's still_—but then he saw the other body, Naruto taking Sasuke's place in the twin graves.

* * *

"I'll take care of you," Naruto said fiercely. "I promised Sakura." Naruto's book was lying against the wall, after having narrowly missed Sasuke's head.

Sasuke still wouldn't tell Naruto what his plans were, or where he thought Itachi was, and he wouldn't promise to let Naruto come with him. He just kept saying that it was a "family matter." Well, Sasuke was _Naruto's_ family, all he had now. That made it his business.

"I'm not a child," Sasuke snapped, "and I don't need taking care of."

"Being too scared to ask for help when you need it doesn't make you an adult," Naruto snapped right back.

"What would you know about being an adult?" Sasuke snarled. "You hardly knew any!"

He gritted his teeth together and stared Sasuke down. Sasuke looked away after a few seconds.

Normally he would have accepted it as acknowledgment and let it go, but he wasn't feeling charitable now. He walked away.

Sasuke made him some sort of fancy noodles for dinner and silently left tiny marble fireflies by his plate. He pocketed them with a stony face and let them go outside without watching.

He tried to sleep in one of the extra bedrooms that night, but it was too dusty, too cold, and too quiet. He waited until Sasuke was asleep and crept in with his pallet.

* * *

And maybe it was because he was angry at Sasuke, and uncomfortable on the floor, that he woke up when Sasuke stirred in the middle of the night.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" he asked first, because it was about three in the morning and he was still ticked off. And then he realized—Sasuke wanted to apologize, so then he'd have to tell Naruto. "What were you dreaming about?"

"My brother," Sasuke said, rubbing his eyes—maybe to wake up, or maybe to hide his face. "The usual."

"What was it about?" Naruto asked when it was obvious Sasuke wouldn't say any more.

Naruto had to scoot up next to the head of the bed to hear him. "He told me that he created me. That all I am is marble and the life that he gave me."

"That's twisted," Naruto said shakily, and since Sasuke needed something, faked a laugh. "But that can't be true, right?"

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"You can't just make people. I mean—if you were marble, people would know, right? What about your parents? People would notice if they just showed up with an extra kid one day—"

"One of the properties of the Sharingan," Sasuke said to his hands, "is memory adjustment."

And what could he say to that, really? Any evidence he could offer could be fabricated.

He looked up at Sasuke, rigid and stiff (and alone) and wished Itachi away so hard.

"If I can kill Itachi," Sasuke said at last, "that'll prove that I'm my own person. If he made me—then I won't be able to."

"You should have _told_ me," Naruto said, and the anger was inexplicably back. At Itachi, for what he'd done to Sasuke, at Sasuke for being so damn closed mouthed—would he have ever told Naruto any of this if he hadn't woken up?

"Go to sleep, Naruto," Sasuke said, turning over. "You can yell at me in the morning."

"Or I could yell at you _right now_." No response. "No way, you're not asleep, I know you aren't—_bastard_."

* * *

"You should have told me," Naruto accused over breakfast, hacking at his pancake until it looked like some of Kyuubi's prey, mangled beyond recognition.

"You hide a lot of things from me too," Sasuke countered evenly. "About your parents, for instance. And about why you have those scars. Or why the village finally killed Kyuubi. I looked in the records—"

"That's cheating," Naruto managed to say. His tongue felt heavy in his mouth. "You had no right!"

"Your dad was very important. A leader of the village." Sasuke's hands cupping Naruto's face, forcing him to look at Sasuke. His eyes burned him a little. Not with Sharingan, but something worse.

"Shut up," Naruto whispered. He pried the hands off his face and turned away. His skin felt chilled from the loss.

Hands on his back now, hot through his thin shirt, small circles pulling him back. "The elders made a prophecy. They said that any child of his would bring doom to the village, until we paid our debts. And for four years, a drought. Disease. Crop blight. And that's where the record ended."

Sasuke was too close and too smart and too warm, but the more he struggled the tighter Sasuke's arms around him. Great. Sasuke had to pick _now_ to get touchy-feely.

"The scars, and the marks on your stomach—they aren't from Kyuubi, are they. It's traditional, around here—to mark a sacrifice so the gods know who it's for." Sasuke's voice low, but not pitying.

He pretended to hear a challenge in it.

"My parents left me in the woods. I don't know where they are now, and I don't care. And Kyuubi—" He paused, took a deep breath, let it out. "Kyuubi stole a little girl. Now you know. Happy?" Turning to marble had to be easier than this. Better to be frozen than sliced open and spread out.

"No," Sasuke said.

Silence. Naruto stirred his drink and watched it swirl around his cup. Little whirlpools. Sasuke let him go and looked a little embarrassed, which made Naruto feel better.

"My feet were cold, last night," Sasuke said eventually.

Naruto blinked at the non sequitur and then made the connection. One of these days he was going to wait until Sasuke said "I'm sorry" before he'd forgive him.

But not today.

"You know, I have an idea for that."

"Oh?"

He leaned in close and whispered, "Socks."

Sasuke shoved him out of his chair. He grabbed Sasuke and pulled him down to the floor with him.

* * *

His feet were cold and so was the rest of him, but sleeping on the grave seemed the only fitting punishment. Someone had to keep Naruto company.

* * *

"I could handle a person sitting still and not resisting for ten seconds, yes. Itachi won't be. He'll be fighting back, and trying to turn me at the same time. I'm not fast enough to stop him before he finishes me." He turned his head from Naruto, studying his hands instead. "And—maybe I never will be. But I can't put this off any longer. I need to do this alone."

Without hesitation, Naruto said, "No you don't. I'll help. We'll beat him."

"You're not coming."

He thought that they'd worked this out. Stupid Sasuke. "But you said you weren't strong enough to do it!"

Sasuke hesitated, and Naruto knew he wouldn't like what came next. He was right. "Naruto . . . ." He took a breath. "I'm going to die looking in my brother's eyes. I've always known that. I've only been training so that I'll survive long enough to finish him. And if I can't finish him—I don't want you there. He'll kill you."

"You can't leave me here alone!" His voice was louder than he intended, and he was shaking, shouting in Sasuke's face, and he wasn't sure when he'd gotten there.

Sasuke was still, and quiet.

More controlled, he said, "You won't die if I'm with you. I'll revive you." The shoulders under Naruto's hands tensed. Grudging agreement. "Besides, how would you stop me?" Their eyes met and Naruto realized instantly after he said it. He shut his own eyes and covered Sasuke's with an arm.

"I know you're not going to do that to me," Naruto said quietly. "You wouldn't. And whatever else you're thinking up—you're not going to do that, either."

Puzzled, under his arm, "Why?"

"Because I'm your best friend," Naruto said, directly into Sasuke's ear. Was that him shaking, or Sasuke? "And, I love you. And you'll have to keep me locked up forever if you're going to stop me, because I'll find you. I'll save you. I will."

And then Naruto took his hand away from Sasuke's eyes to slide down his cheek and rest there, palm to his jaw, because he had to trust Sasuke some time.

When Sasuke opened his eyes they were black, which Naruto took to be agreement.

"You stubborn idiot," Sasuke breathed into Naruto's neck. "You stupid, stupid idiot."

* * *

He kept a firm grip on Sasuke that night while they slept, so he couldn't run away. Sasuke muttered threats into Naruto's chest but didn't actually turn him into stone, which was as good as assent, Naruto figured.

* * *

He woke up at dawn out of habit. Naruto mumbled, "_Why_ are you awake? . . . Go back to sleep."

And that reminded Sasuke of his dream last night. "You idiot," he said. "You even named the _eggs_."

Naruto pushed Sasuke's face into a pillow. "Sleep now. Be a crazy bastard in the morning." He muttered something else into his pillow that Sasuke chose not to decipher.

"We're never raising chickens," Sasuke said, and let the warmth lull him back into sleep.

* * *

In the morning they started making preparations.

"I'm a better planner anyway," Naruto said confidently.

Sasuke just arched an eyebrow at him. "_Are_ you."

"Yeah, you're pretty lousy. Oh, you're okay most of the time, but not when it comes to your brother. You were going to just let him kill you?" He ignored Sasuke's attempt to glare him into submission and continued. "And you really thought that you could leave me behind. Pretty stupid," Naruto said fondly, "_idiot_."

The look on Sasuke's face was quite rewarding. And—oh, what the hell. Naruto reached over and pulled Sasuke into his arms, earning an elbow to his stomach for his trouble. "_My_ idiot," he wheezed into Sasuke's hair.

"That's my line," Sasuke grumbled.

Naruto blinked and—beamed. "Yeah. Yeah! It is. Sorry, bastard."

"It's all right," Sasuke said magnanimously. "I forgive you."


End file.
